Chapter 2: Encounter

However, walking by the river often would eventually wet one’s shoes. Once, at a masquerade ball, Su Lun was having a heated discussion with the Countess and several noble young ladies when an unexpected incident caused everything to be exposed.

In his fury, the new Count Caren ordered Su Lun’s capture, intending to eliminate this cheap father of his.

What could Su Lun do? He had to reason with him, of course. I, Su Lun, convince others with reason!

Then, on a dark and windy night, Su Lun alone ‘entered’ the heavily guarded Thorn Castle to find his dear ‘son.’ First, he had a ‘reasoning’ session with over thirty Knights in the castle. After this reasoning, Su Lun gained Count Caren’s forgiveness.

Following a warm and friendly exchange, Su Lun agreed to leave Caren City, while Count Caren withdrew the order for Su Lun’s capture and the bounty.

After reaching this agreement, Su Lun did not stay in Caren City any longer. After bidding a tearful farewell to the noble ladies and young women, he took his savings and headed to the Northern Province. Of course, before leaving, he also purchased a noble identity with the help of the noble ladies, and then he encountered the scene before him.

“Roar!”

“Charge!”

“Tear them apart!” Shouts came, followed by a group of Goblins and Kobolds charging forward, yelling nonsensical slogans.

“Archers!”

“Ready!”

“Volley!” Over twenty arrows were loosely shot from within the carriage formation. The entire Caravan had only sixty to seventy people in total, with guards making up just half.

Though the human guards were few in number, they coordinated well. Using the carriages for defense, they kept the Kobolds at bay, while a group of spearmen stabbed and killed the Goblins and Kobolds through the gaps between the carriages.

Su Lun found a spear inside a carriage and stood on top, brandishing it. The spear created a series of afterimages, slicing across the throats of Goblins and Kobolds, sending up sprays of blood.

The Gnolls acting as overseers at the back did not step forward. They planned to use these cannon fodder to wear down the humans’ stamina. Once the humans were exhausted, the Gnolls would attack and tear through the carriage formation. A large number of Kobolds and Goblins surged forward, and soon, the area in front of the formation was piled with corpses.

Under normal circumstances, Kobolds and Goblins would have scattered and fled after such heavy losses. But with the Gnolls forcing them from behind, these Kobolds and Goblins had no choice but to continue attacking. The battle quickly intensified, resulting in many Goblin brutes and Kobold deaths. The front of the carriage formation even formed a slope from the accumulated corpses.

In just a quarter of an hour, the Kobolds and Goblins suffered at least a hundred casualties, while only two unlucky humans were pulled down from the carriages and torn apart.

At this point, the Kobolds and Goblins were on the brink of collapse, and even the Gnoll overseers could do nothing about it. Of course, they were not entirely without contribution, as the humans had also expended a great deal of energy.

Yegus stepped forward slowly and let out a furious roar toward the human carriage formation. Over a hundred Gnolls behind him roared in response, and the next moment, these bloodthirsty and brutal Gnolls charged.

“We’re finished!”

“Damn it!”

“If you don’t want to die, raise your weapons!” Seeing the Gnolls charge, many people turned pale with fear and could barely hold their weapons steady. The head guard, seeing this, shouted loudly, trying to steady morale.

But the effect was limited. In Su Lun’s System, the humans’ morale dropped from eighty to sixty instantly. If it dropped any further, deserters would appear. Meanwhile, the morale of the Kobolds and Goblins, which had been only forty, instantly rose to seventy, and the Gnolls’ morale reached ninety.

Seeing the charging Gnolls, Su Lun grabbed his spear and leaped down from the carriage. With the Pegasus trait enhancing him, Su Lun’s speed was astonishingly fast. The sharp blade of his spear cut through flesh, and the recently boosted morale of the Kobolds and Goblins instantly shattered.

Without the Goblins and Kobolds in the way, Su Lun soon faced the Gnolls. Seeing a human charging at him, a Gnoll showed a fierce grin, already imagining biting through the human’s neck.

“Rip!” The sound of metal tearing through muscle and bone echoed as the 2.2-meter-tall Gnoll was lifted on the spear and flung away.

Su Lun’s attack did not frighten the Gnolls but instead made them more frenzied. Many Gnolls abandoned their attacks and swung their Spiked Clubs at Su Lun, only to be easily tossed aside by his spear.

The high-morale Gnolls grew even wilder, completely ignoring their fallen comrades as even more of them charged forward again.

“Whirling Cherry Blossom!”

Four bursts of energy appeared instantly as the spear spun. The charging Gnolls were engulfed by the swirling energy, which acted like countless sharp blades, covering their bodies with countless wounds before they were sent flying back faster than they had charged.

“Oh my god! Is this real?”

“By the Sun God, is the Knight Rank this strong?”

The guards on the defensive carriage formation watched Su Lun’s performance, their jaws dropping. In just a few breaths, the number of Gnolls killed by Su Lun had reached double digits. Without pausing, Su Lun swiftly moved across the battlefield, cutting through enemies like grass.

The humans’ morale, which had been on the verge of collapse, instantly soared, while the Gnolls’ morale dropped to seventy. More importantly, the Gnolls had lost over thirty of their number in such a short time.

Seeing the heavy losses, Yegus let out an angry howl and charged at Su Lun with thirty Gnoll Barbarians, intending to surround and kill him. Seeing the Gnoll Barbarians closing in, Su Lun did not retreat but instead sped up and charged forward.

When he was still three to four meters away from the group of Gnoll Barbarians, Su Lun suddenly let out a roar!

“Thunderous Spear!”

Immediately, Su Lun’s already burly body swelled as if inflated. With a series of cracking sounds from his bones, Su Lun’s height increased from 1.9 meters to around 2.2 meters, and the contours of his muscles conveyed an astonishing sense of power.

Streaks of Lightning Glow appeared around his body, dancing over his weapon and form. The Gnoll Barbarians near him suddenly froze.

“Torrential Rain!”

The nearly three-meter-long spear was wrapped in a layer of blue lightning. Countless bolts of lightning, like a thunderstorm, flew from the spinning spear. The lightning balls swept across a ten-meter radius centered on Su Lun, electrocuting all the Gnolls within range into charred remains.

Even the Gnoll leader was severely injured and then had his throat pierced by a single thrust of the spear.